Tracey Emin and Damien Hirst design artwork for mobiles

Tracey Emin said designing art this way made it more affordable

Limited edition contemporary art for mobile phones, designed by the likes of Damien Hirst and Tracey Emin, has been made available to buy online.

The original authenticated artwork can be downloaded for display on phones, tablets, computers and TVs.

Works will be created in limited runs of between 2,000 and 10,000 and will cost between £5 and £500.

"I like the idea of original pieces of art going to people directly for a low price," Emin said.

"When you are an artist and you get to a certain level, it means that you have forced yourself out of the market for a lot of people, and this makes pure art available."

The website, called s[edition], launched on Thursday. By Friday morning, 18 people had already purchased the most expensive item - Damien Hirst's For Heaven's Sake.

The piece, priced at £500, is a high definition video displaying one of the artist's famous diamond-encrusted skulls.

Purchasers store their copy of the artwork, which is numbered and authenticated, in an online "vault" which is accessible from connected devices such as iPads an internet-enabled televisions.

The site's terms and conditions suggest that, in the future, collectors will be able to trade their collections with other members of the website via an internal marketplace.

Other famous names available on the service include conceptual artist Michael Craig-Martin, film-maker and photographer Wim Wenders and the US illustrator who created President Obama's Hope poster, Shepard Fairey.

Emin's offer includes several variations on her neon light series, which spell out advertising slogans and confrontational messages in glaring fluorescent colours.

The real-life artworks sell for figures in excess of £60,000. The online versions are currently offered at £50.

"It is a new medium, which I think is exciting," said the artist.

"If you were to buy a neon, well most people couldn't, so this way they could actually have a neon in their room, in their living room, at a party for example on their screen, and it is reasonably inexpensive."

Robert Norton, the co-founder of the s [edition] project, said it made "contemporary art accessible to a whole new world of collectors at prices most people can now afford".